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How can I calculate my `eco footprint'?

Lucy Siegle

We are consuming more and dumping more than ever before. A guide on how to shrink your ecological shoe size.

THE LATE 1970s were notable for a variety of reasons: Star Wars, Margaret Thatcher came to power, and the Bee Gees prompted an ill-advised fashion for all-in-one "disco suits." Among all of this, humanity's collective ecological footprint crossed the sustainability barrier for the first time, and we began eating into our natural capital — as opposed to living off the interest.

At the time, this slipped below the radar; it was not picked up until ecological footprinting was devised in the 1990s. A kind of ecological accounting, footprinting measures human resource consumption and waste levels (both of which are increasing) against the earth's biocapacity, which includes the amount of biologically productive space available and the capacity of the earth to absorb waste and pollution, and to regenerate.

Unfortunately, ever since the "disco suits" we have been on a non-sustainable course, consuming faster and offloading on to a planet less able to absorb the excesses. Our "fair share" of the globe's resources works out to around two hectares per person a year, whereas the average person in the United Kingdom requires 5.3 hectares each (the equivalent of six football pitches).

Craig Simmons, co-author of Sharing Nature's Interest, insists that footprinting is crucial because it gives us a snapshot of our impact at a global, national, regional and personal level. Visit his website, www.bestfootforward.com/personalstepwise.html to calculate your hectarage. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Simmons recommends calling time on unnecessary air travel: "Dollar for dollar, cheap flights have a huge impact. A flight to the east coast of America can add another two to three hectares on to your personal footprint for the year."

Less obvious, but increasingly significant, is the amount of electronic gadgets and appliances we let into our lives each year. This is symbolised by the RSA Weeeman, a hulking statue made up of redundant appliances weighing 3.3 tonnes — the weight of electronic products currently discarded by the average U.K. citizen over a lifetime — now on display at the Eden Project in south-west England. (Visit www.weeeman.org, where you can also calculate the footprint of your mobile phones or PCs.) Giraffe Innovation, one of the companies behind the sculpture, specialises in charting the energy, resources and emissions that go into electronic goods to give an accurate ecological footprint. Knowing just how much of your two allotted hectares your PC (4.24 per cent) and mobile (0.18 per cent) actually accounts for means you can decide whether or not you need that upgrade.

As we are in the grip of an "energy obesity epidemic," cutting back on domestic energy use is a good place to start. Also, look at the provenance of your food. Italy's eco footprint is just two-thirds that of the U.K., which is partly due to the fact that Italian families consume substantially less processed food. In footprinting terms, the intensive processing of food is more significant than food miles. So, eating fresh rather than processed food (particularly processed meat and dairy) could immediately shrink your environmental footprint, or at least limit your capacity to put the boot in. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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